Units timetabled for 2013 and 2014 are provisional only, and details of semester and time will change. The official timetable for each year is released on 1 September of the prior year.

Archived unit descriptions for 2011 are available here.

Time with Plato: The Wellsprings of Western Thought

Unit Code: 
AP180
RTI: 
United Faculty of Theology
Unit Value: 
15 points

What do we mean when we speak about knowledge? Justice? Truth? Love? Immortality? The wellsprings of these notions are to be found in Plato, the remarkable Greek philosopher to whom Western thought owes virtually its every founding context. This unit takes “time with Plato.” It aims not only to survey, but also to encounter his thinking, and engage with it.  The still-enticing dialogues which he authored become a prism in which we find focussed not only his predecessors — Socrates and the pre-Socratics — but also the very art of thinking itself. 

Learning Outcomes: 

Upon successful completion of this unit, it is expected that students will be able to:

  1. discuss key concepts in Western philosophy, including being, knowledge, love, truth, justice, and the soul, in relation to their origin in Plato’s thought
  2. identify elements of the Socratic method as exhibited in the Socratic dialogues
  3. reflect critically on the presuppositions which inform Plato’s philosophy, as these bid to be foundational in Western philosophy, and as they contrast with, in particular, an Aristotelian approach.  
Lecturer/s: 
John Martis
Timetabling
Semester: 
Semester 1
Day: 
Wednesday
Time: 
10 - 1
Location: 
Centre for Theology and Ministry
Unit Frequency: 
Biennial
Years Offered: 
2010
Unit Fields
Courses: 
Bachelor of Theology
Courses: 
Bachelor of Ministry
Field: 
Field A Humanities
Disciplines: 
Philosophy
Department Name: 
Department of Philosophy
Unit Level
Undergraduate Level: 
1
Prerequisites: 

Nil

Prohibited Combinations: 

Nil

Mode of Teaching: 
Semester
Teaching Methods: 

12 x 3 hour weekly seminars

Workload
Number of timetabled hours per week: 
3
Expected personal study hours per week: 
6
Total workload hours per week: 
9
Total workload hours for unit: 
108
Assessment
Assessment TypeWeightingLearning Outcomes Assessed
Assessment Type: 

1 x 2000 word essay

Weighting: 
50%
Assessment Type: 

1 x 2 hour written examination

Weighting: 
50%
Recommended reading: 

* = set texts recommended for purchase

  • Barnes, Jonathan. Early Greek philosophy. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1987.
  • Biffle, Christopher. A guided tour of five works by Plato: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo (Death Scene), Allegory of the Cave. 2nd. ed. Mountain View, CA: 1995.
  • Kraut, Richard, ed. The Cambridge companion to Plato. Cambridge / New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
  • Moor, Donald R. and Robert M. Pirsig. Coffee with Plato. UK: Duncan Baird Publishers, 2007.
  • *Melchert, Norman. The great conversation: A historical introduction to philosophy. Third ed. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Co., 1999. Or 4th ed. Boston, MA: Mcgraw-Hill, 2001.
  • Plato, The collected dialogues of Plato, including the letters, edited by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns. Bollingen Series 71. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1961.
  • Plato. The republic. Trans. and introd. Desmond Lee. 2nd ed. rev., with additional revisions. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1987.
  • Ring, Merrill. Beginning with the Pre-Socratics. 2nd ed. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield , 2000.
  • Santas, Gerasimox Xenophon. The Blackwell guide to Plato’s Republic. Oxford: Blackwell, 2006.
  • Taylor, C. C. W., R. M. Hare and Jonathon Barnes. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. Past Masters. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
  • Vlastos, Gregory. Socrates: ironist and moral philosopher. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

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